Abstract
On the first sight, Schopenhauer’s theory of language seems to be a rather simple instrumental one: Language is a means to convey information to others by sensual, vocal or written signs. However, Schopenhauer also argues that the real empirical object is the basis of a concept, which is abstracted from the former leaving out most of its properties and keeping the “essential” ones. In this paper, it is shown that Schopenhauer’s view on language cannot be reduced to an instrumental theory of language. Such a reduction would be really surprising in view of Schopenhauer’s style of writing and his critique of language.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
Sascha Dümig [1, p. 159] denies the evolutionary and neurophysiologic conditions for reason. He might be right that there is no place where Schopenhauer explicitly puts reason in connection with the evolution of the brain, but as a part of the intellect, reason is included whenever Schopenhauer claims a connection between intellect and the evolution of brain. As well for instance he talks about “brain activity that rises to the level of reason” [WWR II, p. 361]. Nevertheless this is an interesting observation.
- 2.
Schopenhauer does not keep concepts and words apart clearly. On the blurring of the difference between both cf. [2, pp. 39–41].
- 3.
Music in relation philosophy differs from other arts. Referring directly to the essence, music structurally comes closer to the philosophical use of language than to the poetic. It “uses a highly universal language to express the inner essence, the in-itself of the world (which we think through the concept of will, after its clearest expression) and does so in a distinctive material, namely pure tones […] moreover, in my view and according to my endeavours, philosophy is nothing other than a complete and correct repetition and expression of the essence of the world in very general concepts […]” [WWR I, p. 292] On the other hand, and different to philosophy, the universality of music“is in no way the empty universality of abstraction; rather, it is […] united with thorough and clear-cut determinateness” [WWR I, p. 289]. It could be instructive to elaborate on the relationship between music and philosophical speech but would go beyond the scope of this essay. For an attempt in this direction cf. [3, p. 66 sq.].
- 4.
For a more detailed explanation of this kind of characterizing cf. [6, p. 100 sq.].
References
Dümig, S.: Lebendiges Wort? Schopenhauers und Goethes Anschauungen von Sprache im Vergleich. In: Schubbe D., Fauth S. R. (eds.) Schopenhauer und Goethe: Biographische und philosophische Perspektiven. Meiner, Hamburg (2016)
Dobrzański, M.: Begriff und Methode bei Arthur Schopenhauer. Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg (2017)
Shapshay, S.: Poetic Intuition and the Bounds of Sense: Metaphor and Metonymy in Schopenhauer’s Philosophy. In: Neill, A., Janaway C. (eds.) Better Consciousness: Schopenhauer’s Philosophy of Value. Blackwell Publishing, Chichester (2009)
Grigenti, F.: Arthur Schopenhauer über Sprache und Worte. Schopenhauer-Jahrbuch 98 (2018)
Birnbacher, D.: Schopenhauer und die Tradition der Sprachkritik. Schopenhauer-Jahrbuch 98 (2018)
Koßler, M.: Die Welt als inintelligibler und empirischer Charakter. Schopenhauer-Jahrbuch 97, 93–103 (2016)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Koßler, M. (2020). Language as an “Indispensable Tool and Organ” of Reason: Intuition, Concept and Word in Schopenhauer. In: Lemanski, J. (eds) Language, Logic, and Mathematics in Schopenhauer. Studies in Universal Logic. Birkhäuser, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-33090-3_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-33090-3_2
Published:
Publisher Name: Birkhäuser, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-33089-7
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-33090-3
eBook Packages: Mathematics and StatisticsMathematics and Statistics (R0)